{"id":2568,"date":"2012-02-09T23:55:26","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T04:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2012-03-24T17:14:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-24T21:14:34","slug":"christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/2012\/02\/christian\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Christian?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have learned that the word Christian means different things to different observers.<\/h1>\n

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The reason for this is that many who profess to be Christian do not reflect the true meaning of the word.\u00a0 If you have followed my blog for any time at all, you know that I am not fond of denominations or any other kind of label we put on a group of people because people are individuals, and will align themselves with the doctrine of a group to different degrees, anywhere from cool,\u00a0 to tepid,\u00a0 to red hot fanatical.<\/h4>\n

The question “What is a Christian?” for me, first requires an exploration of the meaning of the word “Christian” and an assessment of\u00a0 whether or not the doctrine is aligned with the meaning of the word.<\/h2>\n

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In a sense, I am seeking to define what a Christian should be based on a pure definition.\u00a0 So let’s look at the root word “Christ” and the suffix “ian”. Christ, according to the bible, is the Son of God who willingly came to join us in the flesh to reveal to us a living and loving God, and to be sacrificed\u00a0 on our behalf.\u00a0 The suffix”ian” or “an” indicates that someone or something belongs to a certain group. Thus, an Indian would be a resident of or someone who was born in India, a Faustian philosophy is one promoted by the character Faust, or one that reflects what Faust believed.\u00a0 A Christian, then,\u00a0 is a believer in or a follower of Christ, and a Christian philosophy would reflect what Christ believed.\u00a0 More simply put, to be a Christian is to strive to be like Christ.\u00a0 To be like Christ, we must first come to know Him.<\/h4>\n

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Stop and think for a moment about the people you know.\u00a0 We have acquaintances – people we know a little bit about, friends – people we know more about, family – people we have known all or most of our lives, spouses – people we are very intimate with.\u00a0 The church is filled with the same degrees of relationship with Christ.\u00a0 To some He is just an acquaintance, to others a friend,\u00a0 but to succeed as Christians in becoming the bride of Christ as described in scripture, we will need to achieve a wide spread level of intimacy with Christ.<\/h4>\n

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\"What<\/a> \"What<\/a>\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

I recently studied a book by Richard Stearns titled “The Hole in Our Gospel<\/a>“, which explores what Christ called the Church to be and do, and how the Church has fallen far short of that mark.\u00a0 If we want to call ourselves Christians, the Truth is we need to raise the bar back up to where Christ set it.\u00a0 If we are to achieve a level of intimacy with Him, it will be done His way, not ours.<\/span><\/h4>\n
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1 <\/span><\/sup>In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.\u00a0 2 <\/span><\/sup>The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was<\/em> on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.\u00a0 3 <\/span><\/sup>Then God said, “Let there be light”; and\u00a0 there was light.\u00a0 Genesis 1:1-3 (NKJV) <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There was nothing but darkness until God called light into being.\u00a0 Thus creation began, and the earth, and everything on it and in it, belonged to God, and still does.\u00a0 He entrusted it to us, with instructions from Christ<\/a>.<\/h4>\n
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35 <\/span><\/sup>Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 <\/span><\/sup>“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”\u00a0 37 <\/span><\/sup>Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 <\/span><\/sup>This is the<\/em> first and great commandment.\u00a0 39 <\/span><\/sup>And the<\/em> second is<\/em> like it: ‘<\/em>You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’\u00a0 40 <\/span><\/sup>On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”\u00a0 Matthew 22:35-40 (NKJV) <\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If we profess to be Christian, like Christ, then we must acknowledge that all that we possess, in Christ’s reality belongs to God. He has entrusted us with it and called us to love our neighbor as ourselves.\u00a0 When you love someone, you share what you have with them… you desire them to be happy, healthy, comfortable, and to have opportunities to be blessed and to share their blessings with others.<\/h3>\n

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God created the world with such abundance there is enough for everyone to have it all, but the stewards entrusted with the greatest abundance seem to have a problem with distributing that wealth and investing it in the children of God who were unfortunately born into a less fortunate circumstance.\u00a0 The distribution of wealth worldwide is becoming ever more disproportionate, and Christians who are at the upper end of the spectrum have fallen into the ways of the world rather than following Christ.<\/p>\n

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\"Global<\/a><\/h4>\n

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According to PrisonPlanet.com<\/a>, “Figures for mid-2010 indicate that 24.2 million adults are above the threshold for dollar millionaires. While they make up less than 1% of the global adult population, they own more than a third of global household wealth. More specifically, individuals with wealth above USD 50 million are estimated to number 81,000 worldwide.”<\/h4>\n
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I found more interesting statistics at www.pastorrickypowell.com<\/a>.<\/h4>\n